Animal behavior and obedience.

[worth1]

I'm starting this thread due to what I see people do with their furry friends.
My neighbor has a wee little dog that when she starts to wonder off he yells at her.
I personally find it irritating to be next to someone that screams and yells at their kids or their pets.
But to each their own.

Yesterday the neighbor was with people playing their guitars on the driveway which is a whole different story.

His dog came over to hang out with me.
When it was about to put something in it mouth that it shouldn't I in a quiet voice told her no no you can't have that and she dropped it.
Then I said good girl.
She was about to wonder off and I spoke to her again no no.
Pointed to the ground and told her to lay down and stay.
No yelling or screaming just a nice very quiet voice and pointing my finger.
She did as she was told.
It got to the point that I could call her name and point.
She would mind me.
The darn dog stayed with me all day without getting yelled at and even wanted in my lap.
She's 12 years old and learned to behave without getting yelled at.
My neighbor isn't abusive or anything but yells.
I can't stand yelling at critters.
My cat didn't get yelled at either and she would mind me too.
With Boo Boo I could just point my finger without saying anything.
My wife would yell and scream at him and he wouldn't mind.
It drove me nuts.
It even made her more mad that he would do as I said.
My parents didn't yell at us kids but we would get punished if or not need be.
My dad had a cow dog he couldn't control because she was wound up tight around him.
But the dog would mind me with the cows because I never beat her like he did.

I had a neighbor another place had a big stupid dog that would drag you everywhere on a leash.
I took it out and spent about 30 minutes with it and it stopped dragging people around.
The trick with it was a special choke collar and the word no.
I gave it about 30 feet of run and just as it came to the end I would plant my feet and pull back and say no.
The darn dog would almost do a flip.
Better it flip than me get pulled to the ground.
About 4 times doing this and it would take off
No.
The dog would stop dead in it's tracks without the leash.
Sounds cruel but sometimes it almost has to be done.
The dog was as big as a horse and totally untrained.

[worth1]

Next.
I had a female pit bull that would mind very well but dogs do crazy stuff and she was no exception.
I had another big half Doberman half lab.
They would play in the back yard but Kitty the bulldog would take Walters collar off and chew it up all the time.
To stop this I took his collar and put short Sheetrock screws in it so they stuck out.
It didn't take no time at all for Kitty to lose interest in Walters collar.
Then I took the collar off and put the regular one back on and she never chewed his collar up anymore.
.

[karstopography]

My daughter is very adept at training animals. She loves being around animals of all sorts and cannot seem to get enough of their company. My daughter likes to show off the tricks her dog Mojo can do. Mojo is one half Gordon Setter and the other half Beagle. My daughter looks at her dog without even speaking and the dog will stop doing whatever it wasn’t supposed to be doing. She might have to say his name to get his attention, but that’s about it as far as correcting bad behavior other than a look. Definitely not a yell repeatedly at the dog person.

Mojo is very manipulative with me because I generally don’t correct him at all. So if he wants to crawl up into my lap I let him. Or if I’m petting him, he’ll nudge me repeatedly to keep up the petting if I stop for even a second for whatever reason. My daughter will intervene after a while to stop this type of nonsense and say “Mojo” sharply, but not yell at him.

I am glad I live in an age where I don’t have to rely on animals to do work. I especially don’t like being around cows, horses and other large livestock. It isn’t a fear of them that makes me avoid them, I’m simply not very interested in livestock. Cows will hurt you, though, without giving any thought about it, just simply getting jostled around by other cows at dinner time and you happen to be in the way or raising their heads when yours is too near or stepping on you. Horses have even more ways to hurt you and sometimes enjoy the process. I don’t particularly like having to be aware of the potential of getting kicked, stepped on, bitten, or trampled for simply being around these animals.

Dogs are about the only domesticated animal I thoroughly enjoy. I tend to like it when they are “bad” and act up, jump on things, run around the house and go nuts or tear around the yard after each other. I’m often covertly pleased when dogs go on a spree or rampage, so long as no one gets seriously hurt, and get rowdy.

[Paulf]

Having had several dogs and cats as part of the family over the past 52 years I only remember yelling at one dog one time: My favorite of all time dog saw a little white fluffy dog, walked up to it and put a big bite on its neck. The dog had never done anything like that before to any animal...dog, cat, rabbit or squirrel. I yelled, "drop it" and she did, put her head down and walked back to me ashamed of what she had done. The other dog was not hurt, thank goodness. It was my fault for letting her off the leash in a public park.

I am with Worth that a calm gentle voice but with a tone that is meaningful does more good (for both animals and kids) than meaningless yelling. My wife raised our kids right so that I never had to yell at them.

[Cole_Robbie]

I told myself I would never reprimand my cat. So when as a kitten he jumped on the kitchen counter, he got hugs and cuddles. To this day, when he wants attention he will jump on the counter and look at me as if to say, "I'd like my hug now, please."

[Shule]

Did you know that spiders are very sensitive to shouting, screaming, and pointing? They won't trust you if you scream and shout at/around them. They don't seem to trust other humans, after such, either. They'll be all calm, but if someone walks in a room and has a fit about the spider, you can expect the spider to be frightened and apprehensive (and run from humans thereafter).

Would you believe it's about as easy to catch flies and put them outside as it is to swat them? Yeah, it does take a little skill (but so does swatting them). They're easier to catch when they're on a window or a lightly colored surface than when they land on something dark (they act like they see you coming a lot more when they're on something dark for some reason). For the ones that hardly ever land, you can herd them out the door or out the window.

If you shove a jar over them forcefully, the flies will notice and evade capture more. You have to be gentle.

[Shule]

I must confess to having panicked and sprayed my neighbor's cat with water when it wouldn't get away from the blender-full of grapes that I was filling outside. Probably not the best idea. It told the other cat that it lives with, apparently, and now they don't trust me.

[LindaJean]

You are a kind hearted person Shule , I can't imagine being gentle with spiders and flies. They usually leave the hard way.
Better for the cat to have a healthy fear of blenders.
We adopted a cockatiel that was addicted to sunflower seeds , apparently he got high off them and wouldn't eat anything else. When the bird landed on the hot toaster, he kept lifting one hot foot, then the other to cool them off . It didn't occur to him to jump off so I had to quick swat him.

[worth1]

I had a black fuzzy jumping spider that lived in the corner in the ceiling next to my chair at the dinner table.
The thing would crawl down and eat a piece of meat I would set out for it next to my plate.
I was in grade school at the time.
This isn't BS it's a true story believe it or not.

[rxkeith]

not a yeller here, although a 5am wake up call by the dog having a barking fit watching dangerous bunnies hopping around
outside from the comfort of my sons bed with a nice view out the window, can some times send me over the edge.

my wife would say i am an excellent caretaker of our dogs, but a poor trainer.
i think that opinion is a little harsh.
our current dog is a german shepherd. i love her to death. sweetest, friendliest dog you will ever meet.
she know basic commands, come, sit, down, stay, heel, belly rub. the problem with her is a high prey drive.
she would kill every single chicken we have with relish. on a walk, we might encounter squirrels, chippies, deer,
turkeys, birds flying overhead, all of which require chasing. heel gets ignored. she also has a seemingly incurable desire
to bite car tires. if a car comes down the road, i put her in sit, and stand with a leg on either side of her, and keep her restrained
other wise she would go after the car. the neighbors all know her, and like her. they smile and wave as they drive by.
she can't be off leash or she would be injured or killed.
she is my buddy.

i happen to like spiders. i use them for bug control. i will let them build their webs in the corner of windows to catch meals.
my wife doesn't seem to mind. only spider, i don't want to see are brown recluse. we have them here. i would rather not see
them in the house. their bites can be nasty.


keith

[worth1]

Obedient cat.

[worth1]

I ounce had a Siamese cat that was so jealous.
If you went somewhere else and handled another cat, when you got home she would come unglued.
I mean ticked off big time.
She would go behind the couch and hiss and spew at you.
Then the loud growling would begin.
Off from behind the couch and into the bedroom to get under the bed with more growling.
It normally lasted for an hour or so before she calmed down.
Then you could pick her up and she would sit in your lap but the low growling would continue with the occasional hiss.
If I was gone she would guard my room and run anyone off that dared to enter by jumping off the bed and chasing the person out.
Other than that she and the rest of the cats would follow me everywhere even out into the forest for long walks.